The proceedings of the Forest Eyres and Attachment courts are full of the records of encroachment on the woods of the forest.
People were constantly being fined for chopping down trees.
Alongside this attack on the 'Green' or 'Vert' of Medieval Sherwood Forest by the people who lived there, there were also natural disasters that chopped away at the trees and woods of the forest overtime.
One obvious problem of living in an area dominated by vast areas of open heathland; native deciduous woodland does not easily catch fire according to Oliver Rackham, but the heather of the abundant Sherwood heath land was sensitive to it, and was in fact subject to controlled burning in medieval times.
The main problem for people living in the Forest was that their houses were constructed of timber.
The Middleton Forest Book opens with a reference to the village of Mansfield Woodhouse burning to the ground in 1304! (Boulton 1964)
Timber was requested of the King from Sherwood Forest to allow the rebuilding of the town including the Kirk (church) which had been ‘brenned’ or burned in the disaster.
Radio-
This information helped Budge interpret something of the original layout of the village-
This disaster at the end of the reign of Edward I is documented because Mansfield Woodhouse was part of the Crown manor of Mansfield.
Another disaster from the end of our period shows well the panic and mass response to the terror of a forest fire, and shows how dangerous a long hot summer in Sherwood could be:
‘In 1624 during the great drought of that year Sherwood Forest suffered a great fire, and White (Worksop, the Dukery, and Sherwood forest) quotes from a manuscript preserved in the British museum in which it says that there was such a mist of smoke and particles that people thought it was an eclipse of the sun, but when the true cause was discovered ‘there came command from the justices to raise the country there about and bring pickaxes, spades and shovels to make dikes and trenches to break the fire in the forest’. This fire, four miles long and half a mile wide, was stopped at the wood between Mansfield and Nottingham’.
(Illingworth Butler 1946)
If you imagine a world where shepherds would sit with flocks on the open heath, charcoal burners plied their trade in the myriad of woods, travellers camped by the roadside, foresters, woodcutters, woodwards, sawyers and many others had fires as they worked…and where outlaws lit fires in the depths of the woods…
...also a world where timber-
…it is undoubted that the threat of fire was a very real and very common occurrence in Medieval Sherwood Forest.
(Andy Gaunt, first published 13/11/2011)
Click here for more ‘Stories from the Forest’…
Community Archaeology Nottinghamshire, Community Archaeology Derbyshire, Community Archaeology Leicestershire, Community Archaeology East Midlands, Mercian Archaeological Services Community Archaeology for Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Sherwood Forest, Leicestershire and the East Midlands. Community Archaeology Nottinghamshire, Community Archaeology East Midlands, Community Archaeology Leicestershire. Archaeological
Fire in Sherwood Forest
Award Winners 2016
for "Engaging people in the heritage, history & archaeology of Sherwood Forest".
Some funders and partners:
World-
The Future of Sherwood’s Past
Project page links:
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The Sherwood Forest
National Nature Reserve Archaeology Survey
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Long term Research at
King John’s Palace:
Ancient Royal Heart of Sherwood Forest
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The Sherwood Forest Archaeology Training Fieldschool
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“Scirwuda-
Ghost and Shadow woods of Sherwood Forest Project
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Investigating Thynghowe Viking
Meeting Site
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Searching for the
The Battle of Hatfield
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Fieldswork at St Edwin’s Chapel
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St Mary’s Norton-
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Mapping Medieval Sherwood Forest
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The Sherwood Forest LiDAR
Project
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Warsop Old Hall
Archaeological Project
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The Sherwood Villages Project:
Settlement Development in the Forest
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Researching Edward IIs fortification at Clipstone Peel
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The Cistercians of Rufford Project:
Settlement Development, Dynamics and Desertion.
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Sherwood Forest Environmental Survey
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World War II in Sherwood Forest -
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World War I in Sherwood Forest -
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About Medieval Sherwood Forest
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Robin Hood and Sherwood Forest
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Project page links:
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-
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The Sherwood Forest
National Nature Reserve Archaeology Survey
-
Long term Research at
King John’s Palace:
Ancient Royal Heart of Sherwood Forest
-
The Sherwood Forest Archaeology Training Fieldschool
-
“Scirwuda-
Ghost and Shadow woods of Sherwood Forest Project
-
Investigating Thynghowe Viking
Meeting Site
-
Searching for the
The Battle of Hatfield
-
-
Fieldswork at St Edwin’s Chapel
-
St Mary’s Norton-
-
Mapping Medieval Sherwood Forest
-
The Sherwood Forest LiDAR
Project
-
Warsop Old Hall
Archaeological Project
-
The Sherwood Villages Project:
Settlement Development in the Forest
-
-
-
Researching Edward IIs fortification at Clipstone Peel
-
-
-
-
The Cistercians of Rufford Project:
Settlement Development, Dynamics and Desertion.
-
Sherwood Forest Environmental Survey
-
World War II in Sherwood Forest -
-
World War I in Sherwood Forest -
-
About Medieval Sherwood Forest
-
Robin Hood and Sherwood Forest
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-
-
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